Category: Swami Veda Bharati

Question from a student

I experience myself as an individual self, but what would be the body, the mind and the breath of the Ahymsin-self?

Answer from Swami Veda

Very good. I love that question. The body of an organization or a family or a nation is its structure; the mind is the degree of awareness of its mission; and the breath is the life you put into it. Then you can elaborate on that theme. The structure is the body. The awareness of its mission is the mind – and the mind of a thumb is not different from the mind of a nose in your body. A thumb doesn’t say, “Hey, I have a mind of my own. I’m not going to help you.” In the organization, in the family, that [unity of vision and purpose] happens. [There is] that mind – and then [there is] what you do with it out of compassion. The word “love” ceases, stops. If there is only one, who will love whom?

Long ago I gave a lecture back in the early seventies in Minneapolis I still recall. I don’t know if it’s available, Saints Do Not Pray. To whom will they pray? And I would add to that a sentence. A true lover is he who does not love – because there is no other left to love. Let’s remember that. Saints do not pray and lovers do not love, and that’s the ideal. Only in the world of duality is there separations; there is one and there is another to love. When there is only one mind . . . . The word love exists where there is a sense of separation. I love someone. Does my hand love my mouth, and does my mouth love my stomach? So the hand kindly puts food into the mouth, and mouth doesn’t say, “Hey, I have a mind of my own. I’m just going to keep the food in the mouth. Why should I give it to that stomach?” Because you have one body, one mind from head to toe – and when the organization, nation, group, family, become like that, there is no other to love and no one to fear. Then there is no one to fear. Okay. Alright.

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Editor’s Note

This is a transcription of an excerpt from “Discussion on Bodhisattva,” Rishikesh, India, February, 2007.

As the keynote speaker at the plenum closing session of the inaugural Yoga summit conference in Beijing, Swami Veda Bharati delivered a lecture to the conference participants via life video. This was likely his very last public lecture before dropping the body in July 2015. The transcription below is based on a recording made by the event organizer.

I pay homage to Swami Rama of the Himalayas and all the gurus of the lineage. I pay homage to the Buddha, to Lao Tzu, to Confucius. I pay homage to Kāśyapa Mātaṅg and to Dharmaratna [being the first two recorded Buddhist masters of the 1st Century BC traveling to ancient China and whose remains were buried at the White Horse Temple] of Luoyang. I pay homage to Kumārajīva [a monk of 4th Century AD from Central Asia who alone translated massive volumes of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese], to Faxian [of 4th Century AD], to Yijing [of early 7th Century], to Xuanzang [of 7th Century], [the latter three being Chinese monks who traveled to India and brought back and translated scrolls and scrolls of Buddhist scriptures]. I pay homage to Bodhidharma. I pay homage to all those in both civilizations who have communicated with each other in silence for thousands of years.

Yoga which unites everybody in silence and meditation now unites the people of China and people of India. Walking on the footsteps of all those great immortals to whom I have paid homage, I come to you to revive in you that tradition of discovering the inner serene silence through yoga. Yoga is not a system of physical movement. It is a system of silence and stillness from which the movement expresses itself. It is this yoga to which I invite you to enter within yourself. It is the subtle yoga, not the yoga of the body but the yoga of inner self.

I will first take you through five minutes only of the entry way into the chamber of inner silence. First you will discover your spine. Your spine is a center of all your energies in teachings of the Taoist masters of China and the yoga masters of India. As you discover your spine you will begin to sit straight and you will begin to sense the subtle flow of energy in your spine. And then your senses will naturally want to close. Your eyes will close to look inward into a chamber of silence. Then, as you enter that chamber, your spine will remain erect but all your muscles and joints remain relaxed.

Relax your forehead. Bring your mind’s attention to your breath. Only observe how your breath is flowing. The source of your breath in the energy centers in the spine, the source of serene flow of breath. Simply observe and feel your breath flowing. As you observe your breath will slow down.

Now, feel the flow and touch of your breath in your nostrils. Breathe gently, slowly, smoothly. Just feel the flow and touch in the nostrils. No jerk in your breath. No break between breaths. Let your entire mind become absorbed in feeling this energy stream.

Now the word I give you will not come to your mouth, only in your mind. While you are feeling the outward flow and inward flow of your breaths, count in your mind in your own language: one — two — … Breathing out, one… Breathing in, two… Continue to feel the breath with the count of one and two… No break in the flow of the breath. No break in the count. Observe how the mind, the word and the breath are flowing together in a single energy stream of your conscious mind. Without the feel of the flow gently open your eyes, but let the flows continue even with the eyes open.

Resolve in your mind to calm the mind in this way many, many times during the day. This way is the very first step we teach in our ashram in our yoga tradition. It’s only the first step. But even with this step you will join the great disciples who for thousands of years have sat at the feet of masters and the immortals. The count of one and two is for those who do not wish to believe in any Guanyin, Buddha, religion, Vedas and the masters even. It is a perfect system for the atheist scientific societies. However, if you wish to follow a different system you will have many alternatives.

Those who wish to follow the Heart Sutra, as is shown on the screen written in the Siddham script. The entire Heart Sutra cannot be done in one breath – unless you are already an immortal. So for those who are dedicated to the Heart Sutra you may use “bodhi svāhā”. With each breath you use those words flowing in the mind.

For those dedicated to Guanyin you may use the mantra that’s dedicated to Guanyin in all of China, or to Dölma in Tibet, to Tara in India and to all these lands in Asia, two and half billion people are united by this mantra of Guanyin: “tāre tuttāre ture svāhā”. It is the same mantra that is recited to mother Tārā at my ashram here in Rishikesh by the holy river Ganga. The entire mantra again cannot be done with one breath. So meditation with the breath you may use only the word “tāre”. Breathing out, feel the breath in nostril and think in your mind: “tā – re –”. Breathing in, feel the breath and think in your mind: “tā – re –”.

However, in the yoga tradition, in India commonly, the masters of the Himalayas, they use another word. When Xuanzang brought thousands of scriptures from India and he established the pagoda in Xian, under the patronage of Tang emperor, called the Haṃso Pagoda. Why did he choose to call it Haṃso? That is the word which the yoga masters teach to every beginner to start the practice of meditation.

Now in the honor of Xuanzang, join me, feel the breath in your nostrils. Be still and breathing out think “ham –“, breathing in think “so –“. Continue in silence with your mind, hamso and the breath flowing together.

Many years ago, nearly ten years ago, I had the honor of making the pilgrimage to the temple in Qinling Mountains where Laotzu gave his teachings. I had the honor of sitting with a Tao master who was the abbot there. He talked about the Tao path of energy in the spine. I talked about the Yoga path of energy in the spine. He talked about the bifurcation of the energies in the base of the skull and I talked about the bifurcation of the energies in the base of the skull. He talked of the great masters and immortals leaving the bodies consciously from the top of the head. And I talked of the great yoga masters leaving the body consciously from what we call here brahmarandhra, the opening to Infinity.

I did not bring any offering to the abbot but he gave me, out of his spontaneous love, this Chinese calligraphy that hangs on the wall in my room to this day. Also hanging in my room are the portrait of my master, Swami Rama, and the painting of Guanyin. This is how the traditions unite us.

And I am so joyful that you and I, though apparently thousands of miles away, are united today in yoga. Here in India we have kept the language from which the masters like Xuanzang translated. For example, I have here (holding up a scripture) the Lotus Sutra in the Sanskrit language from which Kumārajīva translated in the 4th Century, seventeen hundred years ago and we are teaching them in our ashram.

I had the honor of visiting the chamber where Xuanzang’s skull was preserved. And I was permitted to enter that chamber. There I recited the original Heart Sutra from which Xuanzang had translated for you. I am sure that his spirit accepted my love offering.

There are yoga and yogas. The paths of yoga have been offered to followers of many cultures. If you do not believe in any religion just use the count of “one –“ and “two – “ with your breath. If you are a Christian you may use the name of Yesu. There is a Christian yoga. There is also a Muslim yoga. And there is also a Buddhist yoga. Now to add a little humor – there is also a “Hollywood yoga”!

But I have no sense of humor and the only yoga I enjoy is the Himalayan yoga. This Himalayan yoga is not the yoga for powers. It is the yoga for purity and serenity. Learn to move as though you are not moving – that is yoga. We have a beautiful text here in India called the Bhagavad Gītā, the Divine Song. It says, “He who knows action in inaction and inaction in action knows the meaning of action.” [around 47:30 SVB stopped briefly in the middle of a sentence, said “Excuse me” and remained in silence for around 30 seconds before continuing citing the Gītā]

[At this point the video connection was interrupted. After resuming the connection Swami Veda continued.] I hope our minds remained connected. Through your silence and through your serenity you can connect to the minds of all the teachers and immortals.

As I was saying, the Divine Song, the texts in Sanskrit says, “He who knows action in inaction and inaction in action knows the meaning of action.” Lao Tzu also says, “A warrior who in the middle of battlefield is not fighting is a true warrior.”

So do not do only postures. Learn to lead such a yoga life with a yoga mind. What was it that the great Himalayan masters were doing in their mind sitting years and years in silence in the caves? They were not pursuing a path of powers. They were pursuing a path of purity and serenity. When the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree for 49 days and 49 nights absolutely still, what was he doing in his mind? When Bodhidharma sat in front of the wall for so many years that his shadow was imprinted on the wall, what was he actually doing in his mind? Do not only honor the founder of yoga, or the Buddha, or Bodhidharma. Do not only honor them. Be ambitious. Learn to do with your mind what they did with their mind.

I have a wish for you – that you become someone that anyone who comes in your presence, any time, feels that he has entered a realm of peace. To have that ambition is yoga. I wish you to be ambitious.

Please accept my thanks to Yin Yan and Mohan for organizing this event for us. I thank the honorable Prime Minister of India and the honorable President and Prime Minister of China for having brought us all together here under the banner of yoga. This union in the yoga transcends all political boundaries as it has done for thousands of years in the past. I pray that someday I welcome many of you to come and sit in silence meditation with me here. In the meantime, please make a resolve that you will calm your mind many, many times in the day by following the harmony of mind with one single thought and the breath for however many minutes it may keep you in enjoying your own inner peace.

Yin Yan would you kindly convey my sincere thanks to his excellency, the Ambassador of India. I shall be grateful.

[Yin Yan: On behalf of all the participants here, I thank you, Swamiji, and I shall bring our students to your ashram to study meditation with you.]

Thank you, Yin Yan. Thank you all. Now before you all go, once more, enter your inner realm for one minute. Just relax your mind and feel the flow and touch of your breath in the nostrils with “one — two—“or with “ham— so—“. Just sit for a minute in silence.

With all the love of my heart, with all the power of action in my hands, with all thoughts and intellect in my head, I honor and worship the pure serene spirit within you. May that always be your own source of peace.

Are there any questions?

Question: Whenever I sit in meditation I would be in tears. Why is that?

Swami Veda: You have many emotions stored up inside you. When you relax they begin to flow out. Make your emotions a flower offering to Guanyin, to your inner spirit, to whomever divine mother you believe in and they will accept your offering. Your tears will turn into a very serene feeling. After some times when you let out your emotions as an offering, after some times, it will stop flowing and you will be calm in your meditation. Just accept it. Accept it and keep coming back to the feel of your breath and the word of your choice. Just keep doing it again and again.

Question: I want to know how meditation can benefit us and what’s the connection between meditation and the āsanas we do in hatha yoga?

Swami Veda: First, my advice – do not practice meditation for its benefits. What is the benefit of smiling? What is fun of smiling? What is the correct method of smiling? What is the benefit of being calm and being in peace with yourself? If you smile for its benefit, is it a smile? So practice being at peace just for the sake of being at peace. Now, you carry a lot of load of emotional tensions in your body, in your muscles. That also makes your breath very short, very shaky and very jerky. Through hatha yoga in postures you release these stored up tensions, stress and so forth so that your body may calm down and be relaxed so that your breath may begin to flow gently and smoothly. In fact, when we teach hatha yoga we teach that the postures being done with a smooth movement, gentle and unjerky flow of the breath. If your body is full of tension and stress it will not let you sit still in meditation. It keeps shaking about. In fact, as I have been taught by my master and as we have been teaching in our ashram, we think of hatha yoga as a form of meditation not separate from meditation. These are explained in my book the Philosophy of Hatha Yoga. So hatha yoga is one of the forms of meditation when it is done with a serene mind with even flow of breath and relaxed movements.

Question: What is samādhi? Is it a way to calm our mind? And let’s add one more question, does God exist?

Swami Veda: What is samādhi? In February 2016 we are doing a 6-day program and the topic is: Can I have samādhi? But I do not promise that you will enter samādhi by doing this – even the Buddha had to sit for 49 days and 49 nights. Samadhi is being that what you really are. You are not your eyes, ears, hands and feet. You are not your breath, your emotions, your disturbances. You are a serene form of conscious energy that is total and pure knowledge and absolute joy. Samadhi is returning to that self-nature. Once you have RE-discovered that self-nature you will never lose it again.

Now to the question: Does God exist – why do you want to believe my answer? Find out for yourself. That is what my master taught me – find out for yourself. You will not find it out by asking intellectual questions. Go to the most serene, quietest place inside you and there find out if there is a God. You will come back from there and tell me if God exists. Find out for yourself.

My blessings.

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Editor’s Note

Shi Hong provided this transcript and also acted as translator of Swami Veda when Swami Veda gave the talk.

Chinese translations

Traditional: https://www.facebook.com/ahymsin.taiwan/posts/1773505236053274
Simplified: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-PjoqiM1PsKFp2BFDGTA8g

To prevent internal disturbances from extraneous thoughts and sentiments arising during meditation one needs to practice purifications such as:

1. The five yamas: non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, abstinence from sensual indulgence, non-possessiveness, and the five niyamas: purity, contentment, practices that lead to purification of body and mind and senses, study that leads to knowledge of the Self and surrender to the ultimate reality.
2. The four brahma-viharas or right attitudes: friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and indifference toward the wicked. (YS.I.33).
3. The antidotes to disturbing thoughts, prati-paksha-bhavana(YS.II.33) to ward off the thoughts (vitarkas) opposed to the yamas, niyamas, and brahma-viharas (YS.II.34), and so forth. The practice of these leads to:
   1. ethical behavior
   2. thereby loosening the bonds of karma, and
   3. chitta-pra-sadana, clarity and purification of mind, making the mind pleasant and clear, and thereby
   4. sthiti-ni-bandhana, firming up the physical and mental stability and steadiness in life and during meditation.

It is not as simple as it appears.  For example, the preceptors in the Himalayan tradition state that they are able to sit in one posture for long hours because:

1. they are emotionally stable and undisturbed, and
2. they have practiced certain special mantras and tantric concentrations after having been initiated into states energizing the muladhara-chakra. Just reading a scholarly commentary on the Yoga-sutras’sutra on asana will not help the disciple accomplish such a state; the entire integral system must be followed. For example, if one has mastered a meditation posture through Hatha practices and can keep that posture for some time, this will not prevent him for feeling a sensation of moving and swaying, etc. (YS.I.31) that many meditators suffer.
3. Another aspect of purification is the conquest of the vikshepas, nine disturbances in the path of concentration: sickness, mental laziness, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, sloth, craving for sense-pleasure, false perception, despair caused by failure to concentrate and unsteadiness in concentration (YS.I.30), and their five accompaniments: grief, despondency, trembling of the body and irregular breathing (YS.I.31).

Without such a conquest one will remain bound to the first three states of mind: turbulent (kshipta), stupefied (mudha), distracted by the vikshepas (vi-kshipta) and will not be able to move to the next ground (bhumi), being one-pointed (ekagra) and then totally controlled (ni-ruddha) in samadhi.

For the conquest of these distractions special methods are employed in the Himalayan oral traditions.  For example, the involuntary physical movement or swaying, or sensation of swaying even without a perceptible movement is overcome by:

1. purifying the emotions,
2. certain mantras, and
3. meditating in the preceptor’s presence which helps steady the sadhaka’s

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Editor’s Note

Passage has been taken from the booklet The Himalayan Tradition of Yoga Meditation, pp 11-14, Ahymsin Publishers, copy printed in 2013.

There is excessive ungentleness in the world, and display of pride and arrogance.  We speak looking down upon the ‘lesser ones’, sometimes gently, but that also patronizingly.  We do so towards ‘lower castes’, towards ‘have nots’, towards children, towards ‘employees’, towards people of other nations, religions, skin colours, cultures, languages – but we expect these ‘lesser ones’ to practice humility towards us.  This continues till they rebel and we quash the rebellions equally insensitively and arrogantly because, well, ‘we are the senior ones’!!

We shout slogans against nuclear wars without controlling and pacifying our personal angers in daily life – how would we then prevent wars without individual peace in each mind?

At the same time, we are always in denial about our individual violence, ungentleness, harshness, personal anger, pride, and arrogance.  Let someone say, ‘you are being ungentle’, we immediately blurt our defensiveness: ‘What? I am so gentle!  I am so humble!!’; ‘there is no ego in me!’; ‘angry? Who? Me? You are imagining!!’; ‘you are always unfairly criticizing me!’ and so on.

A spiritual guide makes us confront our inner ‘demons’ and exorcise them.

This document is an invitation to constant

self-observation

self-examination

self-purification

self-pacification

Please respond to the invitation.

Are the suggestions being made in this document impractical when one is working in and interacting with modern societies?

Nothing can be achieved in a day.

Change has to begin somewhere, even at a snail’s pace.

Just as one keeps one’s spirituality private when interacting with daily routines of business, government and employment situations, but maintains it as a well-guarded treasure, so also one may apply the principles suggested here slowly in the outside world, examining where they may be acceptable without excessive resistance from others.

If you made the experimentation, you would be surprised at the positive results you would obtain in your company, your offices, with your ‘employees’.  And at home with your family.

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Editor’s Note

This passage has been taken from the book Sadhana in Applied Spirituality, pp 13-14, published by Ahymsin Publishers in 2013

Question

You taught us to meditate, but you’ve not taught us to pray. You’re not supposed to ask for anything.

Swami Veda

A devotee can ask anything. A meditator asks for nothing. But a devotee is a child: he can ask for a morsel out of the mouth of his mother. It depends on where you are. A meditator asks for nothing, but a child asks for anything. When prayer becomes wordless it becomes meditation.

I have not taught much on prayer. I don’t want to say more about it, and it’s not because I’m not interested in prayer. All life should be prayer. There should be nothing in life that is not prayer. There should be nothing in life that is not worship. There’s nothing in life that is not devotion. There is nothing outside prayer, no human activity. For prayer, you have to be a devotee, not a dependent. Understand this.

For prayer you have to be a devotee, not a dependent. In a crowd where many people are dependents, devotion is very difficult to teach, because devotion becomes an excuse for showing dependence and it’s not devotion. There are few who can truly pray. Others only give vent to their insecurities.

I’d like you to know the difference between the two. Prayer is a gushing fountain. It cannot be constructed, it cannot follow a text, and it cannot follow words or a method. Who can teach you to pray? You have it in you, it flows from you as a fountain.

It never exhausts itself. If you want to lead the life of prayer, your tears will purify you. They’ll cleanse you, they’ll wash all the transgressions and failures and fears. One who prays is afraid of nothing because he knows that by his prayer he can call upon the Protector of all Protectors.

How can I write down words of prayer and teach? That is not prayer. Prayer is something you either have in you or you don’t have in you. Who taught the first man to pray? In which school of literature did the writers of the psalms of David learn to compose poetry? Who critiqued their poems? Who edited them and said they were ready to publish? Who taught them? They had less of the world literature to draw upon historically at that time. Yet what came out of their hearts and their mouths became immortal literature because there was prayer in them. Indeed, prayers that have flowed out of them have been read by others to follow a model.

So we read prayers and we recite verses. In every religion of the world, even in Buddhism, which does not believe in a Creator God, there are prayers.

Worship is divine. If you have the worshipfulness, you’ll find the right object of worship. What is worshipfulness? The spirit within you, calling you, I’m here. Recognize me? I have met you many times before. “O Arjuna. Many incarnations have past, yours and mine. I remember them all, but you do not remember them.”

So we have met that God, many, many times before but have forgotten His face and His touch. Suddenly you meet Him again, or expect to meet Him, hope to meet Him, or He just simply, barely calls from inside, from within.

A desire arises to place flowers somewhere. So if they don’t go to the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow, they place flowers on the Lenin stone. The urge to place the flowers is the urge to pray. If you did not believe in a God, you would still find a place where you want to put your flowers. And you cannot be without it.

For me that prayer is something spontaneous. Today’s prayer is often like a Hallmark card you send to your beloved ones. Somebody else has to write and sell you the love message. It’s one thing I don’t understand. Somebody else has to write and send you the love message that you are to send. I know my statement is not good for the greeting card industry!

Can you not pray without a book? Without somebody else dictating? Have you no feelings left of your own? How can one teach you feelings? If you have love, you write your own love letter and don’t borrow someone else’s printed word. The best prayer, as you know, is the silent prayer. That silent prayer becomes meditation. Then it becomes meditation in action or it becomes prayer in action. When the feelings awaken, then you will pray. You need no one to teach you.

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Editor’s Note

This transcript is an excerpt from Pandit Usharbudh Arya’s talk on the Bhagavad Gita given at The Meditation Center in 1985. Pandit Arya became Swami Veda Bharati when he took sanyas.

To read “How to Pray for Someone” by Swami Veda Bharati:  http://ahymsin.org/main/Swami-Veda-Bharati/how-to-pray-for-someone.html

Do bear in mind, in (a) speaking, (b) writing (c) lectures and teaching, the three principles of communication:

• hitam:
  • speak only what is beneficial;
  • speak in a manner that would be beneficial;
  • – that it would be beneficial to (a) the listener (b) to your purpose and Mission.
• mitam:
  • measured in intensity of emotion;
  • measured in tone of voice;
  • measured in choice of words, number of words.
• priyam:
  • pleasant, so as to create pleasant-mindedness in yourself and in the listener(s).

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Editor’s Note

This is an excerpt from Sadhana in Applied Spirituality by Swami Veda Bharati.

Inspired by Bhishma, a practising yogi can come to terms with the mystery of death with a peaceful mind. We may also receive inspiration from other great ones, well known or less known, the manner of whose death can guide us.

What we say about yogis is true of any one to whom philosophy and spiritual aspiration are a true reality. Such beings consider death not to be relevant to their processes of thought and emotions. They are neutral to it or create a mind-set whereby they welcome a spiritual dying to all worldly attractions.

The example of Socrates is well known and can be read in the Greek classics. Then there is the story of the Roman philosopher Seneca. He had been a tutor and mentor to a number of emperors in succession, and finally to the notorious Nero. Nero could not tolerate the good philosopher’s advice for long. Nero did not want to kill Seneca outright so he ordered him to go and commit suicide. Death meant nothing to Seneca. He chose a certain day to die. All his main disciples gathered around him. He opened a vein in his leg and continued giving his final discourse on philosophy. The blood was not flowing freely; so he ordered a vessel of hot water in which he soaked his bleeding leg and continued teaching. The disciples came closer and closer leaning over him as his voice began to go feeble and they tried to catch the last of his words. Finally he fell silent and was gone – calm as ever.

Such accomplishment is not possible unless one has first learnt to die to one’s false ego, to the identifications we have erroneously established with physical entities. When the monks of the Swami Orders take their vows, they perform unto themselves the ceremonies that are commonly performed in India after someone’s death. They burn all their identifications into a sacred fire by way of recitations and herbal-incense offerings, with verses like the ones below:

OM;

May my prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana be purified.

May I become a being of light, stainless (viraja) and sinless.

OM; Svaha

I offer my prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana.

They are no more mine

OM;

May my speech, mind, eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, sexual essence, intelligence, wishes and resolves be purified.

May I become a being of light, stainless and sinless.

OM; Svaha

I offer my speech, mind, eyes, ears, tongue, nostrils, sexual essence, intelligence, wishes and resolves. They are no more mine.

OM;

May my epidermis, skin, flesh, blood, fat, marrow, muscles, and bones be purified.

May I become a being of light, stainless and sinless.

OM; Svaha

I offer my epidermis, skin, flesh, blood, fat, marrow, muscles, and bones. They are no more mine.

OM;

May my head, hands, feet, sides, back, stomach, thighs, and organs of elimination and generation be purified.

May I become a being of light, stainless and sinless

OM; Svaha

I offer my head, hands, feet, sides, back, stomach, thighs, and organs of elimination and generation. They are no more mine.

These are just a few of the offering verses recited. Having thus died, having symbolically cremated all his fleshly parts, the novitiate now becomes a new born swami with a new name granted by his spiritual guide.

This concept of dying to one’s old worldly fleshly self is well known in the Christian tradition. Christ taught his disciples to die to their old selves if they seek immortality in the kingdom of heaven. So, Saul who died to his old self on the road to Damishq (Damascus) and became St. Paul later challenged: O Death, where is thy sting?

So, among others, we read the inspiring story of Sister Clara, sister in God to St. Francis of Assisi. One night she chooses to abandon the worldly life. In those days the houses in the town of Assisi used to have two doors, the regular front door and a small back door only for taking out the dead. It was never opened except at the time of a funeral. On the night of her renunciation, she chose to clear up the clutter that was blocking the back door, normally reserved for the dead bodies, and stepped out of the house through that door.

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Editor’s Note:

This passage has been taken from the book Death, Your Servant: Mahabharata´s Bhishma, Examples from a World Classic by Swami Veda Bharati

The word, Guru, is used in many different contexts in India. The Yoga-sutras of Patanjali, the most important text of yoga philosophy and a bible of the yogis says that God is the Guru of even the most ancient ones of the earliest one. Nowadays anybody who teaches you anything is a Guruji. You hear about all kinds of gurus nowadays. Anybody who can touch his nose to his toes advertises himself as a great Guru, great teacher. Is there some kind of a certification to make you a Guru? Maybe you can have a university degree, or some kind of test or become a paying member of the Guru association! What is all this Guru business anyway? What makes you a Guru? When the Beatles became disappointed with Maharshi Mahesh Yogi they said that in India a person becomes a Guru by the same process by which you become a popular rock band in the West. You develop a following.

So, what is a Guru and what is the test of being a Guru? It’s very difficult to start the discussion on this subject. The word is used in so many different contexts. Sometimes it’s just an expression of respect. We are told in the tradition, in the culture in which I was born that your mother is the first Guru. Your father is the second Guru. Your teacher is the third Guru, and your spiritual Master is the fourth Guru. Then there is a book called The Laws of Manu. The major ancient book of laws for the Indians, for India, which says that one Guru equals ten paid teachers. A hundred gurus equal one father, and hundred fathers equal one mother. So anywhere that you derive wisdom from is Guru. There are also great women figures, great women Masters and sages in the history of India.

The Sanskrit word for a school is Gurukula, the Guru’s family. And a child’s education took place in Gurukula, in the Guru’s family. A child was sent between the ages of five to eight to live with the Guru’s family away from civilization in the forest, in the hermitages. They had special areas preserved and those areas were sacred. Those were places known as ashrams. Those places were so sacred that a king could not enter but in a humble garb. He could not carry the signs and symbols of royalty with him when he entered an ashram. A policeman had to remove his badge. No authority was allowed. No animal could kill another animal in those areas. No hunters, no trespassers. You could go there only with a very, very spiritual outlook. There was no taxation. Some of these ashrams became great universities like Takshashila in the fourth century BCE. It had 20,000 resident students [whose expenses were] paid for by the State. Yet the State had no say in deciding policy. If there is one motto of the civilization in which I have grown up that would be, “knowledge above all”.

Vidyayam amritam ashnute, one gains immortality from wisdom, from knowledge.

Political power or monetary power are nothing. They are there. They are not to be avoided. But the highest caste in India, the brahmins, were the poorest people in the country. They were regarded as the highest caste because of their knowledge, because of the traditions they carried. In that context you have to understand the importance given to someone who is a teacher. These people, the brahmins of India lived on offerings. Their knowledge was free; but they lived in a society little of which remains today. You won’t see it when you land in India. You will have to look for those pockets, but whatever is there is a continuity from a very, very ancient tradition.

They give of themselves free. A student was not charged a fee. You may say, “that’s very convenient,” but then what was it that the student did? He gave his heart and soul. Then he deserved that knowledge, that wisdom. A Guru could place any test on that student. It was not a monetary arrangement. It does not mean it was not an arrangement. It was a spiritual arrangement because knowledge itself cannot be valued in terms of finances. It cannot be valued. It cannot have a price tag. It sounds a contradiction to the practice you may find right here [in USA]. Providing of necessities is completely separate. There is no connection between that and the wisdom that one receives. The two are not connected, cannot be connected. It is not possible for you to weigh so much knowledge for so much money.

So, a child went to the ashram of a Guru. The child lived under the Guru as his own child, and the princes and the paupers both together lived an ascetic life up to the age of 24 or so. The period of study was a period of ascetic life. It was a period of total equality. Then the prince went and ruled over the country, the brahmin went and taught the people, and the traders’ son went back into the business, but the values that were inculcated in that period of life remained.

Now you can view the Guru on two different levels. One is again giving information. We are not talking about study of economics or study of physics, although the same people in ancient India, the very same people who developed yoga science, also developed all other sciences. The texts they wrote on political science also started with the discussion of metaphysics. Why should the society have political stability? Why should people have economic security? Why should you run a country? Why should you run a government? And the answer given in this tradition is so that they have the facility to meditate, so that they can go towards self-realization, so that one person does not go out of his way to interfere with somebody else’s karma. A trader, a businessman should earn so that he supports the student, so that he supports the seeker, so that he gives to the ashram, so that he builds a well in the village. He who earns only for himself earns only sin. It’s a question of the whole value of the society.

All these material facilities are provided in the society only for one purpose and that purpose is those who are seekers may seek without interference. And so that you may fulfil your karma, your present duty at a certain point you should do it to the fullest of your ability and use it for the benefit of others in such a way that a person who is teaching in an ashram, a person who is studying in an ashram, which were vast institutions away in the forest, continue their life; that you should have the facility in your society that people can follow the inner seeking and if you claim anything beyond that to be yours then you are a thief.

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Editor’s Note

This is an extract from Guru Disciple Relationship, Volume-I by Swami Veda Bharati, pages 1-4.

I want to bring you back, away from what the urban industrial civilisation and its corporate structures and workplace requirements have done to your psychology and your reactions. Sometimes I get very sad about it, because the rest of the world keeps reinforcing this “me” in you. And once a year you hear something like this, and at that time you say, “Yes, we’d like to elevate ourselves” and so on. But you go back into that world and it’s again the same thought pattern. It keeps getting reinforced.  And people do not step out of this “me” syndrome. Without stepping out of this “me” syndrome, there is no meditation. Meditation is dropping the “me”. What do I get out of it? What do I receive from it? What benefits come to me? And now today I heard a new phrase I hadn’t heard before – “yoga entrepreneurship” or “yoga fashion”, or something comprising of pictures of someone in yoga poses, in a very glamorous form. Underneath, the credit line ran “Suit designed by…”, “photographs taken by…” No, it’s no joke. And yoga magazines and all… people add glamour. This is very painful to me.

I’m not against the signboard of the wineshop. There was this wandering sage who came to a village. And when people hear of someone holy, sacred, they just come to pay respects. And they don’t come to say, “What’s in it for me? What benefit will I get by seeing him?” They just come for his darshan. My whole childhood was spent that way. I’d travel from city to city and people would just come. There was no question; they’re not there to ask for help or something, nor to ask for solutions to their problems. They’re there just to be there, just to sit in the orbit called darshan. And nobody comes empty handed. And that’s how I spent my childhood; that way my cultural conditioning. And I’ll tell you a very personal secret. I struggled with the question of whether to telly you or not. Half the cause of my illness is people’s cultural self-centredness and confrontational attitude, and harsh tone of voice, and me, me, me – “Solve my problems”, “do a therapy with me”. And I have to soothe everyone and take their conflicts and sorrows inside me. And I like to spread joy; I don’t like to share my sadness, but there is this sadness in me – for you, about you, about your self-created pains, about your self-created suffering. Meditation is NOT a therapy. It’s not for gaining something. It’s not a secret of success. Don’t do self-centred meditation. Transcend this molecular shield, into which the live consciousness-essence, the conscious life-essence that is you, has infused itself to make this molecular shield become alive and have a semblance of awareness. Whether I succeed or I fail, I am going to keep trying to say this. Enough therapy, and enough benefits! “Entrepreneurial yoga”, or “yoga entrepreneurial” – my mouth gets stuck! The word doesn’t want to come out of my mouth. A curse word! We are not into success, successful centres, successful classes! Transcendence. Success will come incidentally if you abandon the claims to benefits. Then the benefits will flow, and you will take those benefits and share them. You will take from the basket and throw to the world. Step out of this block if you want to make progress.

You know, I have no time to meditate for myself. I really don’t. Because I promise so many people: “I will pray for you.” And on my list there are always 300 to 400 people every day. I have to find time for that. The prayer in meditation is a whole different art. It’s even subtler than the use of the mantra. And the yogis pray not the way the religious people pray. The way the religious people pray is not the way the yogis pray. Eliminate your conflicts and angers while inhaling a sense of wisdom, love and grace. That is the preparation for the next step. And that is exhaling beauty, love, energy, compassion, and sending it to the entire universe. It is inhalation of the pain and the suffering and the conflict of the entire universe, and being able to absorb inside – dissipating it inside. That’s just the beginning of the meditational prayer. Meditational prayer, for anyone, takes less than a quarter second to achieve the full result. It’s non-verbal; it’s a form of including someone in your field. Every mind, all the minds join the guru-field. All the minds join the guru-field and a single field is created.

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Editor’s Note

This passage has been taken from the book Meditation: The Art and Science by Swami Veda Bharati.